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Impact of sex hormones on cutaneous neurovascular responses in humans
Author(s) -
Brunt Vienna E,
Miner Jennifer A,
Martini Emily R,
Smith Michael M,
Kaplan Paul F,
Minson Christopher T
Publication year - 2010
Publication title -
the faseb journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.709
H-Index - 277
eISSN - 1530-6860
pISSN - 0892-6638
DOI - 10.1096/fasebj.24.1_supplement.991.23
Subject(s) - medicine , hormone , endocrinology , reactive hyperemia , antagonist , blood flow , receptor
Purpose We examined the impact of estradiol (E 2 ) and progesterone (P 4 ) on skin local heating (LH) to 42°C and reactive hyperemia (RH) responses in 23 healthy young women. Methods Subjects were studied for 3 trials over 10–12 days. Endogenous sex hormones were suppressed with a gonadotropin‐releasing hormone antagonist (GnRHa). Subjects were studied on day 4 ( trial 1 ) of GnRHa only. Subjects were studied 3–4 days later ( trial 2 ) following treatment with either 0.1mg/day E 2 by transdermal patch or 200mg/day P 4 orally. Subjects were studied again 3–4 days later ( trial 3 ), following treatment with both E 2 and P 4 . Subjects underwent identical LH and RH protocols on all study days. Results All blood flow values are given as percent of maximum cutaneous vascular conductance (%CVC max ). E 2 alone increased initial peak CVC from 71 ± 2 to 79 ± 2% (p=0.01). P 4 alone increased initial peak CVC from 73 ± 2 to 78 ± 2% (p=0.01). E 2 alone increased nadir CVC from 56 ± 3 to 65 ± 2% (p=0.02). P 4 increased nadir CVC from 62 ± 2 to 66 ± 3% (p=0.07). Neither E 2 nor P 4 increased plateau CVC, although a small statistically significant increase was seen between suppression and P 4 alone (p=0.04). No significant changes were seen between trials 2 and 3 for either group. No differences were observed for the RH response. Conclusions Both E 2 and P 4 increase initial peak and nadir CVC when added back following GnRH suppression. Supported by NIH Grant HL081671